Larry Paradis watches a crowd enter the Rodeo Beach, Fort Cronkhite section of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) on Friday Mar. 14, 2014 in the Marin Headlands, Calif. "This is as far as I've been able to go. For years I would come here with my family and watch them go down this slope and into the beach."Larry Paradis is the Executive Director and Co-Director of Litigation for Disability Rights Advocates, his organization has won a suit against the GGNRA guaranteeing accessibility to this and other parts of the GGNRA.

Larry Paradis watches a crowd enter the Rodeo Beach, Fort Cronkhite section of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) on Friday Mar. 14, 2014 in the Marin Headlands, Calif. "This is as far as I've been able to go. For years I would come here with my family and watch them go down this slope and into the beach."Larry Paradis is the Executive Director and Co-Director of Litigation for Disability Rights Advocates, his organization has won a suit against the GGNRA guaranteeing accessibility to this and other parts of the GGNRA.

Larry Paradis returns to his car parked in the Rodeo Beach, Fort Cronkhite section of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) on Friday Mar. 14, 2014 in the Marin Headlands, Calif. "This is as far as I've been able to go. For years I would come here with my family and watch them go down this slope and into the beach."Larry Paradis is the Executive Director and Co-Director of Litigation for Disability Rights Advocates, his organization has won a suit against the GGNRA guaranteeing accessibility to this and other parts of the GGNRA.

More wheelchair access to trails at Muir Woods, Lands End and Marin Headlands. Braille lettering on signs at Bay Area trailheads and at stairwells leading to San Francisco's Ocean Beach. An audio guide to exhibits at Alcatraz.

These are among the many accommodations included in a settlement, announced Monday, of a long-running lawsuit over access for the disabled to the 75,000 acres of woodlands and shoreline that comprise the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the nation's largest urban national park.

The GGNRA extends from Fort Funston in northwest San Mateo County to Muir Woods and Stinson Beach in Marin County and takes in the northwest edge of San Francisco, from Lands End to Fort Mason. It contains some boardwalks and other level paths that can accommodate wheelchairs, but it lacks routes and comprehensive plans that would provide meaningful access to the disabled, according to those who filed the suit.

"People with disabilities for too long have been excluded from many of the experiences offered by national parks," said Larry Paradis, executive director of Disability Rights Advocates. "These range from watching a sunset from an oceanside beach, to visiting the redwoods, to walking a trail through wilderness, to visiting historic structures.

"This settlement provides a model for federal and state parks nationwide to be inclusive of all people in our community."

Lengthy negotiations

The suit, which accused the Park Service of discriminating against the disabled, appeared to be on the verge of settlement in 2008, when the two sides signed a memorandum giving the government four years to prepare a blueprint for identifying and removing barriers to access.

Negotiations broke down and the case returned to court, where a federal magistrate narrowed the suit but rejected the government's attempt to dismiss it, said Disability Rights Access lawyer Stuart Seaborn. Talks resumed after the ruling, leading to the settlement, he said.

The agreement takes varying approaches to expanding wheelchair access. The Park Service will extend an existing boardwalk in Muir Woods that now ends at Pinchot Grove and will remove debris and other obstacles between disconnected wheelchair paths at Pacifica's Mori Point to provide a continuous loop.

The Park Service will also keep two beach wheelchairs on-site at each of four locations - Stinson Beach, Muir Beach, Rodeo Beach and Baker Beach - and provide accessible routes to sites overlooking Muir Beach and Fort Point. Access to Alcatraz Island will also be increased, with trams equipped to carry up to five wheelchairs on and off a boat, with five days' advance notice.

The goal is "providing the highest level of access while preserving the integrity of the trail," Seaborn said.

Trails to be preserved

No trails will be paved over, he said, but boardwalks or wheelchair-friendly composite surfaces will be installed in relatively level areas, while steep coastal paths will be left alone.

For the blind and visually impaired, 12 trailheads are to be equipped with information panels with texts in Braille and in raised letters, and similar lettering will be installed at the top of every Ocean Beach stairwell. The main Park Service brochures will be printed in Braille and will also be recorded on audio discs, and all publications at every park site will be made available in large print.

Audio guides will be provided for exhibits at Lands End and Alcatraz, and blind visitors will be able to handle tactile models of Alcatraz Island and the Redwood Creek watershed, including Muir Woods.

After a magistrate's approval, the settlement gives the Park Service until September 2019 to complete the access projects.